events

Here are the key events on day 1,227 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is how things stand on Saturday, July 5 :

Fighting

• Russian air defences have downed dozens of Ukrainian drones in widely dispersed parts of the country, including two near the country’s second-largest city, Saint Petersburg, according to officials.
• All external power lines supplying electricity to the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine were down for several hours before being restored, the UN nuclear watchdog said.
• Ukrainian authorities blamed Russian shelling for the power cut, adding that technicians had to take action to restore it.
• Dutch and German intelligence agencies say that Russia is increasing its use of prohibited chemical weapons in Ukraine, including the World War I-era poison gas chloropicrin. Moscow denies this.

Weapons

• United States President Donald Trump said he discussed sending Patriot interceptor missiles to Ukraine in calls with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
• A German government spokesman said the country was exploring the possibility of purchasing more Patriot air defence systems from the US for Ukraine.

Politics and diplomacy

• Trump said that he discussed sanctions with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a Thursday call, who is worried about them and understands they might be forthcoming.
• The US president repeated that he was “very unhappy” with his Russian counterpart, adding: “He wants to go all the way, just keep killing people – it is no good.”
• Zelenskyy says he agreed with Trump, to work to strengthen Ukraine’s air defences, as concerns mounted in Kyiv over US military aid deliveries. The two leaders had a “very important and fruitful conversation” by phone on Friday, Zelenskyy said.
• German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius will travel to Washington later this month for talks with his US counterpart about air defence systems, as well as production capacities, the ministry said.

Here are the key events on day 1,226 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is how things stand on Friday, July 4:

Fighting

• Russia launched a record 539 drones, 11 ballistic and cruise missiles at Ukraine overnight, according to Ukraine’s air force.
• The military said its air defences shot down 270 drones while 208 more were redirected by the army or were drone simulators lacking warheads.
• The attacks on Kyiv injured at least 23 people, damaging railway infrastructure and setting buildings and cars on fire, authorities said.
• The latest overnight attack was one of the largest yet, and Russia will not stop its strikes without large-scale pressure, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
• Russia’s air defence units destroyed 48 Ukrainian drones overnight, Russia’s TASS news agency reported.
• Ukraine launched a drone attack on the Sergiyev Posad district near Moscow, injuring one person and leaving parts of the religiously significant centre without power, the head of the district said.
• Ukraine’s drone attack on Russia’s Rostov region killed at least one woman and forced the evacuation of dozens of people from their homes, the acting governor said.

Weapons

• Zelenskyy said he hoped to speak with his United States counterpart, Donald Trump, about the supply of US weapons to Ukraine.
• In a phone call on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump did not discuss the US decision to halt some shipments of critical weapons to Ukraine, Putin aide Yuri Ushakov said.

Politics and diplomacy

• Trump said he made no progress during his phone call with Putin, who reportedly reiterated he would stop his invasion only if the conflict’s “root causes” were tackled.
• Trump also said he was planning to discuss the conflict with Ukraine’s Zelenskyy on Friday.

July 3 (UPI) — Immigration raids and enforcement actions have prompted some Southern California communities to cancel their annual Independence Day fireworks displays, officials announced Thursday.

Organizations opposed to the Trump administration’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions have said they plan to carry out planned demonstrations on Friday in Los Angeles, regardless.

Last month, several protests turned violent, prompting President Donald Trump to dispatch National Guard troops and Marines to the city, where local police and Gov. Gavin Newsom said the soldiers were not needed to help them enforce the law.

The city announced that it would postpone its annual Fourth of July block party “in light of recent events affecting a portion of downtown Los Angeles and the ongoing circumstances impacting the region,” NBC News reported.

More than 1,600 people have been arrested during ICE enforcement operations since the National Guard and Marines arrived in the city to bolster local efforts to remove undocumented immigrants from businesses and locations that knowingly hire or harbor them.

The Los Angeles chapter of 50501, a group that organized a “No Kings” rally last month in opposition to Trump’s enforcement tactics, has said it plans an all day demonstration outside City Hall on Friday, pushing back on the administration’s immigration actions.

“This isn’t a celebration, ” the group said in a statement. “It’s a stand.”

Prompted by high profile immigration enforcement-related arrests, other, smaller communities that have large immigrant populations are also reconsidering Independence Day celebrations, including East Los Angeles, the Boyle Heights neighborhood, Lincoln Heights and El Sereno, all of which have historically been home to large immigrant populations.

More than 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines remain stationed at federal office buildings in Los Angeles while other Guard soldiers have been redeployed to prepare for a busy wildfire season as hot, windy weather and low humidity have combined to create tinder dry vegetation and other dangerous conditions.

Legal action to remove more federal troops from Los Angeles remains pending in court.

Fear and uncertainty of surprise ICE enforcement actions have cast a shadow of fear and uncertainty over events that still remain planned in Southern California and other places with a high concentration of immigrant populations, including cities in the Midwest and on the East Coast.

Here is how things stand on Thursday, July 3:

Fighting

• A woman in her 70s was killed and two people were injured when debris from a destroyed Ukrainian drone fell on a residential building in Russia’s southwestern region of Lipetsk, Regional Governor Igor Artamonov said on Thursday.

• Russia has made incursions near two towns, Pokrovsk and Kostiantynivka, that are crucial to army supply routes in eastern Ukraine, Viktor Trehubov, a spokesperson for the Khortytsia group of forces, told the Reuters news agency. Trehubov said Russian forces are carrying out “constant attacks with the intent of breaking through” to the border of the Dnipropetrovsk region, according to Reuters.

• Russia’s air defence systems destroyed 69 Ukrainian drones overnight, Russia’s state-owned RIA Novosti reported early on Thursday.

Weapons

• Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it had called in the acting US envoy to Kyiv, Keith Kellogg, to stress the importance of US military aid after the Pentagon decided to halt some shipments of critical weapons over concerns that stockpiles are running low.
• “The Ukrainian side emphasised that any delay or procrastination in supporting Ukraine’s defence capabilities will only encourage the aggressor to continue the war and terror, rather than seek peace,” the Foreign Ministry said.
• Deputy White House Press Secretary Anna Kelly said the halt to some shipments was made “to put America’s interests first” following a Department of Defense review of military support around the world.

•  Russia is using an online media outlet to sow discord in Germany as part of disinformation efforts being carried out alongside its war in Ukraine, the German Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.

• The outlet, Red, portrays itself as a “revolutionary platform for independent journalists” but has “close links” with the Russian state media outlet RT, a ministry spokesperson told reporters in Berlin.

• The European Union’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, warned that Chinese businesses’ support for Russia’s war posed a threat to European security, the EU’s diplomatic service said in a statement, following a meeting between Kallas and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
• Kallas urged China “to immediately cease all material support that sustains Russia’s military industrial complex” and support “a full and unconditional ceasefire” and a “just and lasting peace in Ukraine”, the statement said.

Here are the key events on day 1,224 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is how things stand on Wednesday, July 2:

Fighting

• A Ukrainian drone attack on an industrial plant in Izhevsk, in central Russia, killed three people and injured 35 others, regional Governor Alexander Brechalov said in a post on Telegram.
• The drone struck the Kupol Electromechanical Plant, which produces air defence systems and drones for the Russian military, an unnamed official with Ukraine’s Security Service, the SBU, told the Associated Press news agency.
• A Russian attack on a vehicle evacuating civilians from Pokrovsk, in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, killed one person and injured a policeman, police said.
• The Ministry of Defence in Moscow said that 60 Ukrainian drones were downed overnight over several regions, including 17 over Russian-occupied Crimea, 16 over Russia’s Rostov region and four over Russia’s Saratov region.
• Ukraine’s Air Force said on Tuesday that Russia launched 52 Shahed and decoy drones at the country overnight.
• The United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said on Tuesday that it has been informed of a drone attack last week near Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant that damaged several vehicles near the site’s cooling pond.

Weapons

• Ukrainian Minister of Defence Rustem Umerov announced a new joint weapons production programme with members of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group (UDCG), an alliance of about 50 countries. The programme would offer “a special legal and tax framework” to help establish new factories, “both on Ukrainian territory and abroad”, Umerov said in a post on social media.
• The Pentagon has reportedly halted some shipments of air defence missiles and other precision munitions to Ukraine over concerns that US stockpiles are too low, the Reuters news agency reported, citing two unnamed sources. The Pentagon did not immediately comment on the report.
• A Russian-British dual national appeared in a London court on Tuesday, charged with sending cryptocurrency for pro-Russian separatist militias in eastern Ukraine to buy weapons and military equipment.

Politics and diplomacy

• French President Emmanuel Macron called for a ceasefire in Ukraine in his first call with Russian President Vladimir Putin since 2022.
• A Kremlin statement said that Putin reminded Macron that “the Ukrainian conflict is a direct consequence of the policy of Western states”.
• Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that “no one is delaying anything here”, after US envoy Keith Kellogg accused Russia of “stall[ing] for time” on ceasefire talks, “while it bombs civilian targets in Ukraine”.
• Peskov added: “We are naturally in favour of achieving the goals that we are trying to achieve through the special military operation via political and diplomatic means. Therefore, we are not interested in drawing out anything.”

Here is how things stand on Tuesday, July 1:

Fighting

• The Russian-installed governor of the occupied Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine, Leonid Pasechnik, said that Russian troops are now in full control of the entire region.
• If confirmed, that would make Luhansk the first Ukrainian region fully occupied by Russia after more than three years of war. Luhansk is one of four regions that Russia now claims as its own.
• Russia’s state media and war bloggers also said that Russian forces have taken control of the first village in the central Ukrainian region of Dnipropetrovsk.
• This came as Moscow-appointed officials said Ukrainian forces attacked the city of Donetsk in the Russian-occupied Donetsk region, killing at least one person, damaging several buildings and setting a market on fire.
• Also in Donetsk, Russian forces have occupied one of Ukraine’s most valuable lithium deposits near the village of Shevchenko, The Kyiv Independent reported, citing Roman Pohorilyi, the founder of the open-source mapping project Deep State Map.
• The Ukrainian Air Force, meanwhile, said it detected 107 Russian Shahed and decoy drones in the country’s airspace overnight, a day after the country experienced the biggest aerial attack from Russian forces since 2022.
• Russian strikes in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region left two civilians dead and eight wounded, including a 6-year-old child, regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov said.
• Outside the immediate region, Bloomberg reported an explosion on an oil tanker near Libya, in the latest unexplained blast on vessels that had previously called at Russian ports.

Politics and diplomacy

• Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov urged the United States to consider whether new sanctions on Russia would help the Ukraine peace effort after a top Republican senator said he had received US President Donald Trump’s blessing to move forward on a bill introducing punitive measures against Moscow.
• US envoy Keith Kellogg responded to Peskov’s comments, describing them as “Orwellian”. “Russia cannot continue to stall for time while it bombs civilian targets in Ukraine,” Kellogg said in a post on X.
• German Minister for Foreign Affairs Johann Wadephul, speaking during a visit to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of making “pure mockery” of peace talks.
• “His apparent readiness to negotiate is only a facade so far,” Wadephul said, adding that Germany was trying to help Ukraine get to a point where it could “negotiate more strongly”.
• The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Moscow was introducing “reciprocal measures” restricting access to 15 media outlets from the European Union, in retaliation for the latest round of EU sanctions on Russia.
• In North Korea, images on state television showed leader Kim Jong Un draping coffins with the country’s national flag in what appeared to be the repatriation of soldiers killed fighting for Russia against Ukraine, according to the Reuters news agency.
• Norway said it would deploy F-35 fighter jets to Poland to protect Polish airspace and a key logistical hub for aid to Ukraine, a day after Warsaw scrambled aircraft in response to Russian air attacks on western Ukraine, near the border.

Economy

• The International Monetary Fund said it would provide $500m to Ukraine, after completing a routine review of its $15.5bn four-year support programme.

Here is how things stand on Monday, June 30:

Fighting

• Russia launched its biggest aerial attack on Ukraine since the beginning of its full-scale invasion overnight on Sunday, firing a total of 537 aerial weapons, including 477 drones and decoys and 60 missiles, according to the Ukrainian air force.
• Ukrainian forces intercepted 475 of the weapons, but the military said F-16 pilot Lieutenant Colonel Maksym Ustimenko was killed “while repelling” the “massive enemy air attack”.
• At least four others were also killed in the air raids, in Kherson, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Kostiantynivka regions, the Associated Press news agency reported, citing local officials.
• The aerial attacks were also far-reaching, targeting regions as far away as Lviv, in the far west, where a drone attack caused a large fire at an industrial facility in the city of Drohobych, and cut electricity to parts of the area.
• Poland said it scrambled aircraft, together with other NATO countries, to ensure the safety of Polish airspace during the attack. None of the Russian missiles entered Poland’s airspace, the command said.
• In addition, two people were killed by Russian shelling, including a 70-year-old woman who was found under the rubble of a nine-storey building in the Zaporizhia region, AP reported.
• Russia’s Defence Ministry said it intercepted three Ukrainian drones overnight, and claimed control of the village of Novoukrainka in the partially Russian-occupied Donetsk region.
• The RIA Novosti news agency said one person was killed by a Ukrainian drone in the Russian-controlled part of Ukraine’s Luhansk region, while the acting governor of Russia’s Kursk said that two people were injured in a Ukrainian attack on the border region.

Weapons

• Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the air attacks highlight the need for further support from the United States and Western allies to strengthen the country’s air defences.
• He also signed a decree to pull Ukraine out of the Ottawa Convention banning the production and use of anti-personnel mines, saying Russia has never been a party to the treaty “and is using anti-personnel mines with utmost cynicism”.
• Roman Kostenko, a senior Ukrainian lawmaker, said that parliamentary approval was still needed to withdraw from the treaty. He said legislators will hold a vote on the move.
• Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also said the country has “made the difficult but necessary political decision to stop the implementation of irrelevant obligations under the Ottawa Convention” because it has led to an “asymmetric advantage” for Russia.

Politics and diplomacy

• US Senator Lindsey Graham told ABC News that the country’s Congress will begin voting on new Russian sanctions after President Donald Trump told him, “It’s time to move your bill.”
• Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state television that European countries would feel the consequences of imposing harsher sanctions on Russia. “The more serious the package of sanctions, which, I repeat, we consider illegal, the more serious will be the recoil from a gun to the shoulder. This is a double-edged sword,” he said.
• Russian spy chief Sergei Naryshkin said in remarks published on Sunday that he had spoken to the director of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), John Ratcliffe, and that they had agreed to call each other at any time.

Here is how things stand on Sunday, June 29:

Fighting

• A Russian drone attack killed a teacher and her husband in Ukraine’s Odesa, and wounded 14 others, according to Ukrainian officials. Three of the victims, including a child, were in critical condition.
• At least two others were killed in another Russian attack on the villages of Kostiantynivka and Ivanopillia in the eastern region of Donetsk on Friday, according to Governor Vadym Filashkin.
• Explosions were heard in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, on Saturday night, with Mayor Vitali Klitschko warning residents to take shelter from Russian drones “heading for the city”, according to the official Ukrinform news agency.
• Russia’s Ministry of Defence said Russian forces have taken control of the settlement of Chervona Zirka in Donetsk. The ministry later said it had also seized the area between the Vovcha and Mokri Yaly rivers.
• Top Ukrainian commander Oleksandr Syrskii also said on Telegram that Russia’s military was “surging towards” the key city of Kostiantynivka in Donetsk, but that “apart from sustaining numerous losses, [it] has achieved nothing”.
• In Russia, a Ukrainian drone attack caused several injuries to a 43-year-old man, including a traumatic brain injury, in the village of Glushkovo in the Kursk region, the TASS news agency reported, citing a local official.
• Ukraine’s SBU security service said Ukrainian forces using special drones attacked the Kirovske military airfield in Russian-occupied Crimea, destroying three attack helicopters and an anti-aircraft missile system.
• Russia’s military said it destroyed 64 Ukrainian drones over western Russia and Russian-occupied Crimea overnight and into Saturday.

Politics and diplomacy

• Poland’s outgoing president, Andrzej Duda, during a visit to Kyiv, asked Ukraine to “please be patient” during the handover to his nationalist successor, Karol Nawrocki. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters he would “of course” invite Nawrocki to Ukraine after he assumed office.
• Ruslan Stefanchuk, the speaker and chairperson of the Ukrainian Parliament, told Ukraine’s ongoing marathon television broadcast that a bill is being drafted to hold elections after the war, Ukrinform reported.

We checked in to this popular central London hotel to see why it’s so popular – with celebrities and ‘regular’ travellers alike – and discovered spacious rooms and amazing views

First impressions when you enter London Hilton on Park Lane, on the edge of Hyde Park, are certainly grand ones, with a glitzy lobby filled with velvet sofas and human-sized bouquets of fresh flowers to greet you.

Despite this clearly being a big corporate hotel (there was at least one conference going on when we stayed), the service is super friendly and personal, from the welcome at reception to the cute note from housekeeping on our pillow with the turn down. Lots of guests were obviously repeat visitors, and staff greeted them – and first-timers like us – like old friends. We’re told Academy Award-winning actor Susan Sarandon recently stayed here, as did Maura Higgins to get ready before this year’s TV BAFTAs.

READ MORE: ‘I found a stylish five-star London hotel next to The Ritz but a fraction of the price’

READ MORE: ‘I found London’s coolest party house where rock stars stay and with fascinating past’

The rooms at London Hilton on Park Lane

We were lucky enough to be put in the recently refurbished Executive Park Lane Suite, a huge space on the 25th floor featuring a lounge area, separate bedroom and dressing room, and incredible views out over Hyde Park, with the Serpentine twinkling in the middle. We were particularly taken by the window seat and super-comfy bed, and the large marble bathroom with two sinks, separate bath and shower, and Molton Brown toiletries. If your budget stretches to it, it’s a real luxury to have so much space in the city centre, and feels like London’s version of a luxury apartment in New York City, overlooking Central Park.

One big perk for those staying in an Executive Room or any of the 56 suites is access to the hotel’s Executive Lounge, where breakfast is served in the mornings, and drinks and snacks between 5pm-7pm in the evenings – and there’s a wide selection, with no limits on the wines, beers, soft drinks and snacks. You could basically dine out here if you so wished.

The food atLondon Hilton on Park Lane

Instead, however, we headed downstairs for dinner at the hotel’s Park Corner Brasserie, a modern British eatery serving elevated classics. Although not a huge number of options for vegetarians, we loved our cabbage and sweetcorn frittata, and there were loads of grill dishes to choose from. Our personal highlight came at the end of the meal with a trio of creme brulées, each one more delicious than the last.

How much does it cost to stay atLondon Hilton on Park Lane?

Rooms at London Hilton on Park Lane start from £459 for a Twin Guest Room.

For a stay that costs a little less, take a look at Citizen M’s four London hotels, which start from £208.80 per night, or browse hundreds of other options on Booking.com.

Antler Discovery backpack

Durable, lightweight and surprisingly spacious, this combines the ease of carrying of a backpack with the capacity of a cabin case.

It’s a favourite with our editorial commercial content director Michelle Darlow, who packed it on a recent Ryanair flight to Italy to save money on luggage fees.

Kipling Art M multi-use medium tote with trolley sleeve

£107

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Kipling

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Another tested-and-tested favourite with our shopping team, this is a good choice if you’re after something a bit softer and less structured. It’s available in a huge number of colours and a handy trolley sleeve if you are travelling with a larger case.

Amazon underseat foldable travel duffel bag

£15.99

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For value, nothing much beats this duffle bag from Amazon, which also looks smart and timeless. Available in 28 colours, it measures 40 x 19 x 25cm and fits perfectly under the plane seats, it complies with Ryanair’s strict travel luggage rules which allows you to take a free cabin bag measuring 40 x 20 x 25cm.

Here are the key events on day 1,220 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is how things stand on Saturday, June 28:

Fighting

• Ukraine’s military has said it struck four Russian Su-34 warplanes at the Marinovka base outside Russia’s city of Volgograd, some 900km (550 miles) from the Ukrainian border.
• A Russian missile attack has killed at least five people and wounded more than 20 in Samar in Ukraine’s southeast, in the second strike on the industrial city in three days.
• Russian troops have captured the village of Nova Kruhlyakivka in Ukraine’s eastern Kharkiv region, Russia’s state news agency TASS reported.
• A Russian attack has damaged an “important power facility” in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, causing power cuts in some settlements in the region, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said.
• A Ukrainian drone attack on Russia’s Kursk region injured a war correspondent from Chinese news outlet Phoenix TV, Russian authorities said, as they urged the United Nations to respond to the incident.
• Ukraine’s air force said it downed 359 out of 363 drones and six of eight missiles launched by Russia in an overnight attack.
• Russia’s drone production jumped by 16.9 percent in May compared with the previous month, data from a think tank close to the government showed, after President Vladimir Putin called for output to be stepped up.

Ceasefire deal

• United States President Donald Trump said he thinks something will happen in Russia’s war in Ukraine that would get it “settled”, citing his recent call with Putin but offering no other details.
• Putin said relations between Russia and the US were beginning to stabilise, attributing the improvement to efforts by President Trump. Putin reiterated that he had “great respect” for the US leader and was willing to meet him.
• Putin also said Moscow was ready to hold a new round of peace negotiations with Ukraine, potentially in Istanbul, although the time and venue have yet to be agreed.

NATO

• Lithuania has notified the UN that it is leaving the treaty banning antipersonnel landmines. It joins Latvia, Estonia, Finland and Poland – all NATO and European Union members bordering Russia – in withdrawing from the treaty, citing the increased military danger from their Russian neighbour.
• The Kremlin said Estonia’s stated readiness to host NATO allies’ US-made F-35A stealth jets, capable of carrying nuclear weapons, posed a direct threat to Moscow.
• Putin said Russia was looking to cut its military expenditure from next year, contrasting that with NATO’s plan to raise its collective spending goal to 5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in the next 10 years.

Sanctions

• Senator Ron Wyden, the top Senate Finance Committee Democrat, pressed US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to commit to enforcing Ukraine-related sanctions against Russia and to clarify comments about Russia rejoining an international bank payments network.
• Wyden also sought answers on how the US-Ukraine critical minerals deal and investment agreement would help improve Ukraine’s post-war security and not benefit any entity or country that aided Russia’s war effort.
• Ukraine plans to ask the EU to sanction Bangladeshi entities it says are importing wheat taken from Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia, after its warnings to Dhaka failed to stop the trade, a top Ukrainian diplomat in South Asia said.

Here is how things stand on Friday, June 27:

Fighting

• Russian air strikes killed one person and wounded two others in Ukraine’s southern region of Kherson, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on Telegram.
• Russian troops have taken control of the village of Shevchenko in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, which is close to a lithium deposit, after fierce resistance from Ukrainian forces, a Russian-backed official in the occupied region said.

• Russian troops also took control of the settlement of Novoserhiivka also in Donetsk, according to the Russian Ministry of Defence.

• Ukraine’s forces stopped Russian advances in the border area of Ukraine’s northern region of Sumy this week, the country’s top general, Oleksandr Syrskii, said in a statement.

• Syrskii has also ordered defensive lines to be built more quickly in the Sumy region, as Russian forces gain ground towards the industrial Dnipropetrovsk region.

Military

• North Korea will send more troops to Russia to assist in its war against Ukraine, possibly as early as July, a South Korean lawmaker said, citing information from Seoul’s spy agency.

Politics and diplomacy

• Ukraine and Russia exchanged a new group of captured soldiers, the latest in a series of prisoner swaps agreed at peace talks in Istanbul earlier this month. Neither side said how many prisoners were released, but they had pledged to swap at least 1,000 soldiers each during their direct meeting in Istanbul on June 2.

• Russia said there was no progress yet towards setting a date for the next round of peace talks with Ukraine, Interfax news agency reported. Another state news agency, TASS, quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying Russia was in favour of continued United States efforts to mediate talks.

• The European Union’s 27 leaders have agreed to extend sanctions on Russia for another six months, resolving fears that Kremlin-friendly Hungary would let the measures lapse, officials said. The sanctions include the continued freezing of more than $234bn in Russian central bank assets until at least early 2026.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged the European Council to send “a clear political message” that Brussels backs Kyiv in its effort to join the EU.
• Earlier, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that a state-organised consultation gave him a “strong mandate” to oppose neighbouring Ukraine’s EU accession at the EU summit in Brussels.
• The international chemical weapons watchdog, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), said that it had found a banned tear gas in seven samples submitted by Ukraine, which has accused Russia of using the riot control agent on the front line. It was the third time the OPCW confirmed the use of CS gas in areas where fighting is taking place in Ukraine.
• Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said a new arms race could lead to the fall of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “regime”, just like it toppled the Soviet Union.

Press freedom

• A Russian court said it had found a photographer, Grigory Skvortsov, guilty of treason and jailed him for 16 years after he allegedly admitted passing detailed information about once-secret Soviet-era bunkers to a US journalist.

• Moscow will summon the German ambassador soon to inform him of retaliatory measures in response to what it sees as the harassment of Russian journalists based in Germany, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

Here are the key events on day 1,218 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is how things stand on Thursday, June 26:

Fighting

• Russian air defence units destroyed two drones targeting Moscow, the city’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said. Moscow’s Vnukovo International Airport suspended departures and arrivals in response to the threat, news agencies quoted aviation watchdog Rosaviatsiya as saying. Restrictions were also in place for a time at airports along the Volga River.

• The governor of the Russian region of Voronezh, which borders Ukraine, reported that more than 40 Ukrainian drones had been destroyed throughout the day.

• In Russia’s Bryansk region, also on the border, the regional governor said that seven drones had been destroyed.

• The Russian Ministry of Defence, in a report earlier in the evening, reported that 18 drones had been destroyed over a three-hour period in several regions extending through central and southern Russia.

• Russian forces have taken control of the settlement of Yalta in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, Russia’s state-run RIA news agency claimed, citing the Defence Ministry in Moscow.

Politics and diplomacy

• NATO allies have pledged to increase their annual defence spending to a total of 5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2035. Amid Russia’s military threat, the transatlantic military bloc also reaffirmed its commitment to collective defence, stating that “an attack on one is an attack on all”.

• United States President Donald Trump said he would consider providing more Patriot missiles that Ukraine needs to defend against mounting Russian strikes, adding that Russian President Vladimir Putin “really has to end that war”.

• Trump also said that he will speak to Putin “soon” about ending the war. He also told reporters that it is possible that Putin has territorial ambitions beyond Ukraine.

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he discussed with Trump the possible joint production of drones during their meeting on the sidelines of the NATO summit.

• Ukraine and the Council of Europe human rights body have signed an agreement forming the basis for a special tribunal intended to bring to justice senior Russian officials for the crime of aggression against Ukraine. An agreement on the matter was signed by Zelenskyy and Council of Europe Secretary-General Alain Berset at the Council’s headquarters in Strasbourg.

• Following the signing of the agreement in Strasbourg, Zelenskyy said “strong political and legal courage” was required to make sure every Russian “war criminal faces justice”, including Russian President Putin.

• The whole of NATO, including the US, is “totally committed” to keeping Ukraine in the fight against Russia’s invasion, the alliance’s secretary-general, Mark Rutte, said in an interview.

• Putin will not travel to next week’s BRICS summit in Brazil because of an outstanding arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court, Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said.

• Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said the European Union had evolved into an enemy of Russia that posed a direct threat to its security, and Moscow was now opposed to Ukraine joining the trade and political bloc.

• German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius stressed the importance of the US as a partner in the Ukraine conflict and said allies were working to prevent Washington from losing interest, in comments to the ARD broadcaster.

Here are the key events as a ceasefire was declared in the 12-day Israel-Iran conflict.

Here’s where things stand on Tuesday, June 24:

Fighting

• A US-brokered ceasefire began at around 04:00 GMT on Tuesday, with Iran halting attacks first and Israel following suit 12 hours later.
• After a rocky start, the ceasefire was holding later in the day, with the missiles and drones silent in both directions for the first time in nearly two weeks.
• The phased 24-hour process was initially violated by both Iran and Israel.
• Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz initially ordered “intense strikes” on Tehran, accusing Iran of violating the truce first, something Iran denies.
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin quickly acceded to United States President Donald Trump’s demand to stand down on further attacks.
• Netanyahu’s office said Israel’s military “destroyed a radar installation near Tehran”, claiming it was in retaliation for several earlier Iranian missile strikes.
• Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said 14 missiles were launched against military centres across Israel, adding that the last wave of missiles was carried out minutes before the ceasefire implementation and in response to deadly Israeli strikes.

Casualties and disruptions

• Iran’s Red Crescent Society announced that four of its ambulance workers were killed by the Israeli military. They identified the medics as Mojtaba Maleki, Mehdi Zartaji, Amirhossein Jamshidpour and Yasser Zivari.
• The Iranian judiciary said several employees and visiting family members died as a result of Israel’s attack on Evin Prison on Monday.
• Iran’s Health Ministry said 610 people were killed in Israeli strikes over the past 12 days.
• Israel’s military said a soldier, identified as 18-year-old Eitan Zacks from Beersheba, was killed “as a result of a missile launched from Iran”. Three others died in that attack.
• Israel said its airspace has reopened for emergency flights, while Israel’s flag carrier said it will boost its flight schedule to bring tens of thousands of Israelis back from abroad.
• Syrian airspace reopened after being temporarily closed, Syrian media reported.
• Oman Air said its flight operations also returned to normal following cancellations last night over regional tensions.
• Other countries in the region, including Qatar and Iraq, also reopened their airspace, with flight operators confirming their plans to resume services on Tuesday.

Politics and diplomacy

• Trump said he was “really unhappy” with Israel for violating the truce. He called on Israel to stop dropping bombs and to “bring your pilots home, now!”
• Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian declared the “end of the 12-day war” with Israel to be a “total victory”.
• Pezeshkian also said his country is ready to resolve issues with the US based on international frameworks.
• Pezeshkian called Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani a day after an Iranian attack on the US military base Al Udeid and expressed “regret”, noting Qatar and its people were not the target of the attack.
• Netanyahu said that Trump “expressed his immense appreciation” for attacking Iran, and that Israel “achieved all of the war’s goals”.
• Netanyahu also said: “We rose like a lion, and our roar shook Tehran. This war will be studied in all the armies of the world. We destroyed the critical facilities in Arak, Natanz, and Isfahan.”
• Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform that it was a “great honour” to “destroy” Iran’s nuclear facilities, and then “stop the war”.
• Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran is more determined to hold on to its nuclear programme after the 12-day Israeli assault, saying “our scientists made massive sacrifices and even lost their lives for this goal”.
• Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh, in remarks to Al Mayadeen TV, said that Iran is alert and ready to respond to any attack.
• Yemen’s Houthi rebels lauded Iran’s “heroic” battle against Israel, with the group’s spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam saying the war was also against “other Western countries that stood with the aggressors”.
• Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China supports Iran in achieving a “genuine ceasefire” after it condemned the US for striking the country’s nuclear sites.
• .British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz met at the NATO summit in The Hague, saying that it was now “time for diplomacy”, as the fragile ceasefire took hold.

Here are the key events on day 11 of the Israel-Iran conflict.

Here’s where things stand on Monday, June 23:

Fighting

• Iran has fired ballistic missiles at the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, the United States’ largest military installation in the Middle East. Doha said the attack was intercepted and there were no casualties.
• Fellow Gulf countries Bahrain and Kuwait – which also host US facilities – joined Qatar in closing their airspace, then reopened them.
• Earlier, Israel had struck Tehran’s Evin Prison, notorious for holding political activists. Iranian state television shared surveillance footage of the strike, which reportedly blew the facility’s gate open.
• Explosions were heard on the western outskirts of the southwestern Iranian city of Ahvaz, capital of oil-rich Khuzestan province, the Fars news agency reported.
• Tasnim news agency reported a strike at an electricity feeder station in the Evin neighbourhood in north Tehran.
• Earlier, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said his country had attacked “regime targets and government repression bodies in the heart of Tehran”, including Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) command centres.
• Israel also carried out a strike on the Fordow enrichment facility, a day after the US hit the underground site south of Tehran with so-called “bunker buster” bombs.
• The Israeli military issued an evacuation threat to residents of Tehran, telling them to stay away from weapons production centres and military bases.
• Iranian state television said on Monday that the country had targeted the Israeli cities of Haifa and Tel Aviv. It claimed the majority of its projectiles fired since the early hours of the day had successfully reached their targets.
• Sirens sounded across Israel before noon on Monday, with a large number of impacts recorded in several areas, including the Ashdod area in southern Israel and the Lachish area, south of Jerusalem.

Casualties and disruptions

• Eleven days into the conflict, large numbers of Tehran’s 10 million population have reportedly fled.
• After Israel’s strike on Evin Prison, Iran’s IRIB state broadcaster released video showing rescue workers combing the flattened wreckage of a building at the prison, carrying a wounded man on a stretcher.
• Iranian power company Tavanir said there were power cuts in the Iranian capital, Tehran.
• In Qatar, prior to Iran’s attack on Al Udeid, the US and the United Kingdom had urged their citizens in the country to “shelter in place”.
• Britain said on Monday that a Royal Air Force flight carrying 63 British nationals and their dependents out of Israel had left Tel Aviv.
• A number of airlines, including Kuwait Airways, Finnair and Singapore Airlines, have suspended operations in the Middle East. Air India said it was not only halting operations to the region, but also stopping flights to and from the US east coast and Europe.

Politics and diplomacy

• Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that Israel and Iran had “fully agreed” a “Complete and Total CEASEFIRE” to be phased in over a 24-hour period, after which “THE 12 DAY WAR” would be officially over. Iran or Israel have yet to comment on the plan.

• His announcement came after Iran’s attack on Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. Trump thanked Tehran for giving him ”early notice” of the attack, which he described as a ”very weak response” to the US attack on Iranian nuclear facilities. In a separate post, he thanked the emir of Qatar for his peace efforts.

• A spokesperson for the Qatari Foreign Ministry said that the country considered the Iranian attack to be a “surprise”, announcing the situation in the country was safe.

• Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei posted on his Farsi-language X account: “We have not violated anyone’s rights, nor will we ever accept anyone violating ours, and we will not surrender to anyone’s violation; this is the logic of the Iranian nation.”

• Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said in a statement posted by his ministry on Telegram that Iran would be ready to respond again in case of further action by the US.

• Earlier in the day, Ali Akbar Velayati, an adviser to Khamenei, said bases used by US forces “in the region or elsewhere” could be attacked – that evening, Iran targeted Al Udeid in Qatar.
• Abdolrahim Mousavi, Iran’s armed forces chief of staff, pledged that the country would take “firm action” in response to US strikes on key nuclear sites the day before. “This crime and desecration will not go unanswered,” he said on state television.
• Ebrahim Zolfaqari, spokesperson for Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya central military headquarters, addressed US intervention in the war in a video statement, saying: “Mr Trump, the gambler, you may start this war, but we will be the ones to end it.”
• Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency said a parliamentary committee had approved a general plan to suspend cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
• Iran’s mission to the United Nations said the US, the UK, France, Israel and IAEA chief Rafael Grossi were responsible for the deaths of innocent civilians and the destruction of infrastructure.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin slammed attacks on Iran as “unprovoked” and “unjustified” in a Moscow meeting with Tehran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
• Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said, “Our strategic partnership with Iran is unbreakable,” but was not drawn on the question of whether Iran had requested military help – or whether any help would be forthcoming.
• After Israel’s attack on Tehran’s Evin Prison, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar wrote “Viva la libertad!”, Spanish for “long live liberty”, on X.
• French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said that the Israeli strike on Tehran’s Evin Prison, which holds some French prisoners, was unacceptable.
• China’s UN ambassador, Fu Cong, said US credibility was “damaged” after its bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites, warning the conflict could “go out of control”, according to the state broadcaster.
• German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said of Sunday’s US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites: “Yes, it is not without risk, but leaving it as it was wasn’t an option either.”
• British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said his country stood ready to “defend our personnel, our assets and those of our allies and partners”.
• NATO chief Mark Rutte said alliance members had “long agreed that Iran must not develop a nuclear weapon” and called an Iranian atomic bomb his “greatest fear”.
• US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called on China to help deter Iran from closing the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for one-fifth of the world’s oil supply and a potential lever for retaliatory action.
• The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said closing the strait would be “extremely dangerous”.
• US President Trump posted an online message on oil production to the US Department of Energy, encouraging it to “drill, baby, drill”, and saying, “I mean now.”
• Reza Pahlavi, the long-exiled son of Iran’s toppled shah, but not seen as a player with any real influence in Iran itself, warned the US and Europe not to throw a “lifeline” to Iran’s current leadership. “This is our Berlin Wall moment,” he said in an interview with the AFP news agency.

Here are the key events on day 10 of the Israel-Iran conflict.

Here’s where things stand on Sunday, June 22:

Fighting

• United States President Donald Trump told the world that strikes had been launched by his country’s military against three key Iranian nuclear sites.
• Trump claimed in a post that the heavily fortified Fordow nuclear facility was “gone”.
• The US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth told reporters at the Pentagon that the US strikes were an “incredible and overwhelming success”, without providing any evidence or details.
• US Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a further threat against Iran, saying any retaliation would be “the worst mistake they’ve ever made.”
• During an address to a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Istanbul, Turkiye, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the US crossed “a very big red line” by attacking Iran’s three nuclear facilities.
• The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said the nuclear sites in Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan were “attacked by enemies of [Iran] in a barbaric act that violated international law, especially the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty”.

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated Trump on a ‘bold decision’ to attack Iran.
• Israeli emergency services say Iranian rockets and falling shrapnel hit 10 locations. The latest Iranian retaliation followed the US strikes.
• Israel’s military said it carried out more attacks on western Iran against what it claimed are “military targets”.
• The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said Iran’s most recent missile strikes targeted Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport, along with research facilities.
• The IRGC is now deploying one of its most advanced missiles, the Kheibar Shekan, as part of its retaliatory measures. Unveiled in 2022, the missile also known as Khorramshahr-4 is believed to have the heaviest payload of Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal.

Casualties and disruptions

• The head of Iran’s Red Crescent Society, Pir Hossein Kolivand, said that there have been no fatalities in the US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
• An adviser to Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said that Iran had been anticipating the US attack on Fordow. “The site has long been evacuated and has not suffered any irreversible damage in the attack,” the adviser said.
• The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran has said that radiation system data and field surveys do not show signs of contamination or danger to residents near the sites of Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz.
• The Israel Airports Authority says it has closed its airspace until further notice “due to recent developments”, referring to the US attack on Iran.
• Airline carriers have continued to steer clear of significant areas of the Middle East following the US strikes, according to Flightradar24.
• A man convicted of spying for Israel has been executed, the Iranian judicial news outlet Mizan Online reports.
• At least 27 people have been wounded in Israel after Iran launched 40 missiles shortly after the US attacks. One of the targets hit was Ramat Aviv in Tel Aviv, with missiles tearing holes in the facades of apartment blocks.
• The semiofficial Tasnim news agency reported that Israel bombed the city of Tabriz, targeting the IRGC’s Martyr Madani camp, wounding at least two.
• Iranian authorities said nine security personnel were killed after Israeli forces struck two military sites in the central province of Yazd, Iran’s Fars News Agency reported.
• Gulf states, home to multiple US military bases, are on high alert after the bombardment of Iran raised the possibility of a widening war in the region.
• Bahrain has told 70 percent of government employees to work from home until further notice.

US opposition to attacks

• In one of the first responses to the attack by a Democratic member of the US Congress, Sara Jacobs said: “Trump’s strikes against Iran are not only unconstitutional, but an escalation that risks bringing the US into another endless and deadly war.”
• House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said that Trump did not seek congressional authorisation for the strikes and will bear full responsibility for “any adverse consequences”.
• Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian-American congresswoman, said Trump’s ordering of strikes on Iran without the approval of lawmakers is a “blatant violation” of the US Constitution.
• Republican congressman Thomas Massie, who has been leading a legislative effort to curb Trump’s ability to attack Iran without the approval of Congress, said the strikes violate the US Constitution, which gives lawmakers the authority over war decisions.
• US Senator Chris Murphy joined the Democratic chorus of criticism. “I was briefed on the intelligence last week,” he said. “Iran posed no imminent threat of attack to the United States.”

Global reactions, politics and diplomacy

• The United Nations Security Council convened an emergency session following the US-led strikes, prompting sharp rebukes from several member states, and renewed calls for a ceasefire in the Middle East, as allies Israel and the US lauded the attack.

• UN chief Antonio Guterres warned the region stood “on the brink of a deadly downward spiral.”

• The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross said international law isn’t a choice but an obligation.

• China “strongly condemned” the US attack, noting its nuclear facilities were under the safeguards of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency.

• Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, said the “absolute majority” of nations are against “the actions of Israel and the United States”.
• Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Palestinian group Hamas and Yemen’s Houthis, all allies of Iran, condemned what Hezbollah called the “barbaric and treacherous” US attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

• Saudi Arabia said that it’s “following with deep concern the developments in the Islamic Republic of Iran, particularly the targeting of Iranian nuclear facilities by the United States of America.”
• Gulf nations Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates all also expressed concern over what the attacks could portend for the region.
• Turkiye’s Foreign Ministry warned that the US strikes have made the risk of escalation more likely.
• British Prime Minister Keir Starmer backed the US military action, saying the attacks “alleviate” the “threat” posed by Tehran’s nuclear programme.
• The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, is calling for a return to dialogue. “Iran must not be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon,” she said, “as it would be a threat to international security.”

Here are the key events on day 1,214 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is how things stand on Sunday, June 22:

Fighting

• Russia has struck several locations, including Chernihiv, Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk, killing at least seven people and injuring more than 20 over the past day, the Kyiv Independent has reported.
• Ukraine has said it has evidence that Russia is preparing new military operations on European territory, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said on X.
• Emergency workers have found three bodies under the rubble of a four-storey residential building in Kramatorsk hit by a Russian missile.
• Ukrainian Army Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskii has said that Ukraine will continue, and increase, its strikes against military targets deep inside Russia three weeks after a brazen attack on remote Russian airbases.

Politics and diplomacy

• Zelenskyy’s office has said Kyiv imposed new sanctions on individuals and legal entities doing business in the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, including Crimea.
• Russia has sent Ukraine at least 20 of its own dead soldiers in recent exchanges with Kyiv due to Moscow’s disorganisation, the Ukrainian president said.
• Russia has rejected the claims, saying that reports over body substitutions are propaganda, according to Russia’s TASS news agency.
• “Ukraine has received 6,060 bodies of its servicemen. In return, we have received the remains of 78 Russian soldiers,” the report said.

Here are the key events on day nine of the Israel-Iran conflict.

Here’s where things stand on Saturday, June 21:

Fighting

• Israeli air strikes hit a key nuclear site in Iran’s Isfahan province. An Israeli army spokesperson said the air force “struck the central facility along with buildings used to produce centrifuges”.
• The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed that a centrifuge manufacturing workshop at the site was hit, adding that there was no nuclear material at the site and therefore no radiological consequences.
• The deputy governor of Isfahan said the cities of Lanjan, Mobarakeh, Shahreza and Isfahan were targeted.
• Iranian media reported a drone attack on Isfahan later.
• Israeli forces also hit a military installation in Shiraz.
• Fars news agency reported attacks on two cities in the oil-rich province of Khuzestan, saying “frightening explosions” were heard in the provincial capital of Ahvaz and a large column of smoke had risen above the port city of Mahshahr.
• In other Israeli attacks, defence systems were activated over Najafabad, while explosions were reported in Malard. There were also reports of attacks on Tehran.
• The Israeli military’s chief spokesperson said the army had been told to be prepared for a “prolonged campaign” to destroy Iranian targets.
• The Iranian army said that the seventh and eighth stages of launching dozens of “destructive” drones towards Israel had been carried out, with a report saying “most of the drones hit the intended targets”.
• Iran’s armed forces threatened to strike shipments of military aid to Israel, warning that “any military or radar equipment by boat or aircraft from any country to assist the Zionist regime” would be considered a “legitimate target”.
• The Israeli army said it had shot down approximately 40 drones launched from Iran.
• German newspaper Bild reported that Israel’s foreign minister claimed that attacks on Iran had delayed the country’s prospects of creating a nuclear bomb by “at least two or three years”.
• Explosions were heard above Tel Aviv, where buildings were seen on fire. In central Israel, the emergency services released images showing fire on the roof of a multistorey residential building.
• A spokesperson for Yemen’s Houthi group, in a video statement, threatened to attack US “ships and warships” in the Red Sea should Washington get involved in Israel’s campaign against Iran.

Casualties and disruptions

• Israel’s defence minister said that Israeli forces killed three senior commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
• The IRGC said five of its members had died in Israeli attacks.
• At least five people were killed in Israeli attacks in the Iranian city of Khorramabad.
• An Israeli aircraft struck a residential building in Qom, killing a 16-year-old and injuring two people.
• Hussein Khalil, a former bodyguard for Hezbollah’s slain leader Hassan Nasrallah killed in an Israeli strike on Tehran.
• Iran’s Fars news agency quoted Health Minister Mohammadreza Zafarghandi as saying Israel had struck six ambulances and three hospitals, killing two health workers and a child in the attacks.
• Iran’s deputy health minister said the department was preparing to treat any victims suffering from the effects of Israel’s continued targeting of the country’s nuclear capability, “in the event that nuclear reactors are targeted”.
• Tasnim News Agency reported Iran’s information minister as saying that access to “international” internet should be fully restored across the country by 8pm on Saturday.
• Iran’s health ministry said that Israeli strikes over the past nine days had killed at least 430 people and wounded approximately 3,500.
• In Israel, Iran’s strikes have killed at least 25 people.
• The head of Qom province’s intelligence police said the force had arrested 22 people “on charges of being connected to the Zionist regime’s spy services” since Israel’s assault on the country began on June 12.

Protests

• In Berlin, more than 10,000 people gathered in the centre of the city in support of Gaza.
• More than 1,000 protesters joined a rally in front of Berlin’s Reichstag, seat of the German Bundestag, to call for the leadership in Iran to be deposed.
• In London, pro-Palestine demonstrators marched through the city centre waving Iranian flags and calling for the UK government to stop allowing arms exports and military cooperation with Israel.
• A pro-Palestine march also took place in Stockholm.
• A mass rally took place in Baghdad’s Shia district of Kadhimiya, under the slogan “Iran is not alone”.

Politics and diplomacy

• Iran’s president spoke with his French counterpart, warning of a “more devastating” retaliation should Israel’s bombing campaign continue, saying that Iran would not halt its nuclear programme “under any circumstances”.
• Macron said that the pair had agreed to “accelerate” nuclear negotiations between European powers and Iran. Iran must never acquire nuclear weapons, and it is up to it to provide every assurance that its intentions are peaceful,” he said.
• Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson said no country has violated international human rights more than Israel, which “has always felt complete immunity from punishment for its crimes”.
• Attending a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Istanbul, Iran’s foreign minister said the United States had been involved in Israel’s “aggression” from “day one”, despite denials from Washington.
• Addressing the OIC summit, Turkiye’s president said Netanyahu was the “biggest obstacle to regional peace” and that Israel’s attacks on Iran aimed to sabotage nuclear talks with the US.
• Qatar’s state news agency reported that Gulf Cooperation Council ambassadors expressed concerns to UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi about the “dangerous repercussions” of Israel targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities close to their countries.
• A German Foreign Ministry official said the country had temporarily relocated the staff of its embassy in Tehran abroad.
• India’s embassy in Iran said it was “evacuating all Indian Nationals in Iran”.
• Hundreds of US citizens have departed Iran using land routes over the past week.

Here are the key events on day 1,213 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is how things stand on Saturday, June 21:

Fighting

• Drones and missiles launched by Russia overnight have damaged energy infrastructure in central Ukraine’s Kremenchuk district in Poltava, said local military authorities.
• One person was injured in the attack, according to Volodymyr Kohut, the region’s military governor, who did not provide further details on the extent of the damage.
• Russia had targeted the district’s refinery, according to a report by online news outlet Strana.ua.

Politics and diplomacy

• Ukraine and Russia exchange more prisoners of war, officials from both countries said, the second swap in two days under an agreement struck in Turkiye earlier this month. All the captured soldiers were wounded, ill or under 25 years old. Neither side said how many soldiers had been freed.
• At Russia’s flagship economic forum in Saint Petersburg, President Vladimir Putin said he did not “rule out” his forces taking control of Ukraine’s northeastern city of Sumy as part of efforts to create a buffer zone along the border.
• The Sumy region is not one of the regions Moscow has formally annexed, although Russian forces have recently made inroads there for the first time in three years, with Putin claiming his troops had advanced up to 12km (7 miles) in the region.
• In a string of hawkish remarks, Putin also appeared to repeat his denial of Ukrainian statehood. Ukraine said Putin’s comments showed “disdain” for the peace process.
• The German military considers Russia to be an “existential risk” to the country and Europe, according to a Spiegel news magazine report that cites a new Bundeswehr strategy paper. Russia is verifiably preparing for a conflict with NATO, particularly by strengthening forces in western Russia “at the borders with NATO,” the report cites the strategy paper as saying. Germany can only counter this threat “with a consistent development of military and society-wide capabilities,” the document concludes.
• Putin has reaffirmed Moscow’s opposition to the spread of weapons of mass destruction, including any potential acquisition by Iran. Putin told Sky News Arabia that Russia supports Iran’s right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, emphasising that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has found no evidence suggesting Tehran seeks to build nuclear weapons. Putin also stated that Russia is prepared to assist Iran in the development of its civilian nuclear programme.

Economy

• At the economic forum in St Petersburg, Putin also urged officials not to let Russia fall into recession “under any circumstances”, as some in his own government warned of a hit to economic growth. Economists have warned for months of a slowdown in the Russian economy, with the country posting just 1.4 percent year-on-year growth in the first quarter of 2025, the weakest pace in two years.
• A decision by the OPEC+ group of leading global oil producers to speed up production now looks far-sighted and justified amid the Middle East conflict, said Igor Sechin, head of Russia’s largest oil producer Rosneft, at the forum. Sechin also said that there will be no oil glut in the long term despite the production rise, and that the European Union seeks to reduce Russia’s oil cap to $45 to improve the profitability of its purchases, not to cut Russia’s budget revenues.

Here are the key events on day eight of the Israel-Iran conflict.

Here’s where things stand on Friday, June 20:

Fighting

• Israel said on Friday that it had struck dozens of military targets in Iran overnight, including Tehran’s Organisation of Defensive Innovation and Research, missile production sites and military facilities in western and central Iran.
• The Israeli military said it struck surface-to-air missile batteries in western Iran, killing a squad of Iranian soldiers on the move during the operation, including a commander of an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) base.
• Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said he had instructed the military to intensify attacks on “symbols of the regime” and “mechanisms of oppression” in the Iranian capital, Tehran, aiming to destabilise it.
• Air defence systems were activated in Bushehr in southern Iran, the location of the country’s only operating nuclear power plant, according to the Young Journalists Club, cited by state broadcaster IRIB.
• Iran’s IRGC said it had fired its 17th wave of missiles at Israeli military facilities, including the Nevatim and Hatzerim bases.
• Iran fired missiles at Beersheba in southern Israel, with initial Israeli media reports also pointing to missile impacts in Tel Aviv, the Negev and Haifa. Iran said that the “precise hits” demonstrated “our offensive missile power is growing”.
• The Fars news agency quoted an Iranian military spokesperson as saying Tehran’s missile and drone attacks on Friday had used long-range and ultra-heavy missiles against Israeli military sites, defence industries and command and control centres.

Casualties and disruptions

• Israel’s attack on Tehran’s Organisation of Defensive Innovation and Research, which it says is involved in Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons development, killed a nuclear scientist, according to Israeli media reports.
• Iranian media reported that an industrial plant involved in the production of carbon fibre in northern Iran was damaged in an attack.
• Iran’s health ministry said a third hospital in Tehran had been struck by Israeli bombs, according to state news agency IRNA.
• At least five people were injured when Israel hit a five-storey building in Tehran housing a bakery and a hairdresser’s, Fars news agency reported.
• Iranian news outlet Asriran said that a drone attacked an apartment in a residential building in the Iranian capital’s central Gisha district.
• The Human Rights Activists News Agency, a US-based human rights organisation that tracks Iran, said that Israeli air attacks have killed 639 people in the country. Israeli authorities had previously said 24 civilians had been killed in Iranian attacks.
• Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said its teams were providing treatment to 17 people, three in serious condition, after Iran’s strikes.
• Israeli railway officials told local media that, due to the Iranian missile strike on Beersheba, the city’s north station was temporarily closed.
• Afghanistan’s agriculture minister said his country was in discussions with Russia to import certain foodstuffs as the conflict between Israel and Iran, one of its largest trading partners, risked cutting off supplies.

Protests

• Tens of thousands of people attended anti-Israel protest marches in Tehran, as well as other major Iranian cities, including Isfahan, Shiraz, Mashhad and Qom.
• Demonstrators in southern Beirut, Lebanon held a pro-Iran rally after Friday prayers.
• Thousands of Iraqis gathered for Friday prayers in Baghdad’s Sadr City, a suburb with a large Shia population, chanting against the US and Israel amid the attacks on Iran.
• Pro-Palestinian activists in the UK broke into the Royal Air Force Brize Norton base in Oxfordshire and damaged two aircraft.

Politics

• US President Donald Trump told reporters on Friday that his director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, was wrong to suggest there is no evidence Iran is building a nuclear weapon. “Well, my intelligence community is wrong,” he replied when asked about Gabbard’s position. Trump also said that while he “might” support a ceasefire deal between Israel and Iran, “Israel’s doing well in terms of war, and I think you would say that Iran is doing less well”.
• Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said the only way to end the conflict was for Israel to stop its air attacks, warning that “failure to do so would result in a far more forceful and regrettable response from Iran”.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin said in St Petersburg that Moscow was sharing ideas with “our Israeli and Iranian friends” about how to end the bloodshed and said he believed there was a diplomatic solution.
• US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced new Iran-related sanctions aiming to disrupt Tehran’s efforts to “procure the sensitive, dual-use technology, components, and machinery that underpin the regime’s ballistic missile, unmanned aerial vehicle, and asymmetric weapons programs”.
• Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said in a phone conversation with Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide that Israel targeting economic facilities in Iran could lead to catastrophic regional and international repercussions.
• French President Emmanuel Macron said there was “no justification” for strikes on civilians and on civilian infrastructure in the weeklong conflict, adding that Tehran should show its willingness to return to the negotiating table concerning its nuclear programme.
• Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said in comments carried by state news agency TASS that potential use of tactical nuclear weapons by the US in Iran would be a catastrophic development.
• German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran over a phone call, a German government spokesperson said.
• UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy said his country was working with Israeli authorities to arrange charter flights for British nationals from Tel Aviv when Ben Gurion International Airport reopens.

Diplomacy

• The United Nations Security Council met at its headquarters in New York to discuss the situation between Iran and Israel.
• Rafael Grossi, director of the International Agency for Atomic Energy, warned against attacks on nuclear facilities at the meeting, saying a strike on the Bushehr nuclear plant could cause “radioactive releases with great consequences” beyond Iran’s borders. He called for “maximum restraint”.
• UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said at the meeting that expansion of the Israel-Iran conflict could “ignite a fire no one can control”, calling on both sides to “give peace a chance”.
• Iran’s UN ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani urged the Security Council to take action, saying the country was “alarmed by credible report[s] that the United States … may be joining this war”.
• Israel’s UN ambassador, Danny Danon, pledged at the UNSC that there would be no letup in attacks on Iran. “Not until Iran’s nuclear threat is dismantled, not until its war machine is disarmed, not until our people and yours are safe,” he said.
• Russia’s envoy Vassily Nebenzia stressed that Israel attacked Iran on the eve of a round of nuclear talks and accused Israel of showing a blatant disregard for attempts to find a diplomatic solution to end the conflict.
• Iraq’s representative to the UN, Abbas Kadhom Obaid al-Fatlawi, said 50 Israeli warplanes from the Syrian-Jordanian border areas violated Iraqi airspace shortly before the Security Council meeting.
• Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi attended a meeting in Geneva with France, the United Kingdom, Germany and the European Union’s foreign policy chief, which appeared to yield no breakthrough.
• Araghchi told reporters in Geneva that Iran would be ready to consider diplomacy “once the aggression is stopped and the aggressor is held accountable for the crimes committed”. Earlier, he accused Israel of a “betrayal of diplomacy” in a speech to the UN Human Rights Council.
• French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told reporters after the Geneva talks that Araghchi had signalled “his willingness to continue these discussions on the nuclear programme and, more broadly, on all issues”.
• British Foreign Minister David Lammy said European ministers in Geneva had made it clear that “Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon”.
• Germany’s Defence Ministry said that it had flown 64 people out of Israel, describing the flights as a “diplomatic pick-up” and not a military evacuation mission, which would have required parliamentary approval.
• Ireland’s Foreign Minister Simon Harris announced his country would temporarily relocate embassy personnel from Tehran “in light of the deteriorating situation”.
• The UK said it was temporarily withdrawing staff from its embassy in Iran, saying the embassy continued to “operate remotely”.
• Switzerland’s Federal Department of Foreign Affairs said it had decided to temporarily close its embassy in Iran, citing intense military operations there.
• Australia also said it had suspended operations at its embassy in Iran. Foreign Minister Penny Wong said a “crisis response team” was being sent to neighbouring Azerbaijan to support Australians departing Iran by road.
• Slovakia and the Czech Republic also announced the temporary closure of their embassies in Tehran.
• British police arrested eight men on Friday, including seven on suspicion of grievous bodily harm, following reports of an altercation involving pro and anti-Iranian protesters at a location close to the Iranian embassy in London.

Here are the key events on day 1,211 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

This is how things stand on Thursday, June 19 :

Fighting

• The death toll from a large-scale Russian attack on Kyiv earlier this week has risen to 28, with 130 injured, although rescue work is still under way.
• The attack was carried out by 440 drones and 32 missiles, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
• Moscow characterised the attack as precision strikes on “military-industrial facilities in the Kyiv region”, although video footage showed the attack levelling parts of an apartment block in the Ukrainian capital.
• Russia said it captured the village of Novomykolaivka in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region, where Russian forces have renewed their offensive. The region has been at the centre of fighting since the Russian invasion in 2022.

Diplomacy

• Speaking to foreign media at a late-night news conference, Russian leader Vladimir Putin dismissed fears that he was planning to attack the NATO military alliance. He said the military bloc and its rearmament did not threaten Russia.
• Putin said he would consider Germany to be a direct actor in the Ukraine war should it supply Kyiv with Taurus cruise missiles. Earlier this month, Germany’s Ministry of Defence said it did not have plans to do so, despite repeated requests from Ukraine.
• Putin further said he does not consider Germany to be a “neutral state”, but a “party supporting Ukraine, and in some cases … as accomplices in these hostilities”.
• Despite his remarks, Putin said he was prepared to meet with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, although he also expressed doubts about Germany’s role as a mediator in the Russia-Ukraine war.
• Putin has offered to meet with Zelenskyy but only during the “final phase” of talks to end the conflict. Last month, Putin declined to attend a face-to-face summit in Istanbul with the Ukrainian president.
• Zelenskyy is reportedly planning to attend a NATO meeting in The Hague next week, where members will discuss raising defence spending to 5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).

Sanctions

• Canada announced new sanctions targeting 77 individuals, 39 entities and 200 vessels in Russia’s “shadow fleet” of oil tankers. In addition to the sanctions, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney pledged a further $1.47bn in military support for Ukraine.